finally cheap MPEG2 DVxplore (again)

[cjyo~]

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it before, but did this one sneak in below the radar?

http://www.snazzi.com/html/dvc2.htm

http://stop.at/dazzle2

It's $299 and it does mention somewhere that it uses C-Cube's DVxplore chip ($27 in quantity).

Has anyone given this a try?

[wkulecz]

The DVexplore chip has generated a lot of hype these past two years, but a few people who've actually seen it in action have panned its quality (Charles Reis in Advanced Imaging).

I'm skeptical of this one and would recommend only buying from a place that'll take it back if you think its quality is not up to snuff.

If someone gets one I'd love to see some samples.

--wally.


[This message has been edited by wkulecz (edited 15 August 2000).]

[Dr Mordrid]

Right.

The DVXplore has a maximum data rate of 10 megabits/sec, or 1.25 megabytes/sec.

By comparison the DVXpress chip used in the RT-2000 & DC-1000 can do 25 megabits/sec, or 3.125 megabytes/sec.

Commercial DVD video peaks out at over 72 megabits/sec, or about 9 megabytes/sec, although this high a rate is rarely used. Most DVD's stick around 40 megabits/sec, or 5 megabytes/s, or so.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 14 August 2000).]

[wkulecz]

Someone on rec.video.desktop posted a link to a site with a VCD format MPEG1 and a couple of MPEG2 samples.

http://www.netdrive.com/~tim254/My%20Public%20Files/

I thought they looked pretty good, maybe a little "soft" but then I've never seen the originals they were made from.

I assume C-Cubed has fixed the problems Mr Reis was refering to over a year ago. Looks like it was worth waiting for.

--wally.

[cjyo~]

Doc, this has bugged me for a while... I've been working in Los Angeles in major studio DVD production for 3 years, and unless I'm crazy, we are always dealing with MPEG2 datarates of 5 - 8 megabits/s. Of course this is on high-end, multi-pass VBR encoders (after DVNR processing).

If you look at this brochure for the $10,000 ZAPEX ZP300 MPEG2 encoder (which I recently set up for a client), it shows the MaxBitrate for VOBs as 10.8 Mbps and 14.0 Mbps for program streams:

http://www.zapex.net/pdf/DataSheets_ZP300.pdf

Where did you get this 72 - 40 Mbps (megabits/s) figure? Am I crazy?

[This message has been edited by cjyo~ (edited 30 August 2000).]

[Walrus]

cjyo~: I think you're correct. All of the DVDs I own are below 9.8 mbit/sec at any point. The DVD spec only allows up to 10mbit/sec (~1.2MB/sec). At that datarate you can only fit slightly over an hour of video on a single sided, single layer dvd. (not counting any extras or anything else)

[harry]

I wonder if the quality output of DVxplore
the reason why ATI pull out their Video Wonder card (even cheaper $179). the card
supposed to be released that month????

harry

[cjyo~]

So, just in theory, the Max bitrate of this card IS close to DVD spec Max bitrate.

Interesting. (Yes, I know all the reasons it won't come close to the video quality of a $100,000 encoder...)

[This message has been edited by cjyo~ (edited 31 August 2000).]

[Jkun]

One more:

http://www.gainward.com/products/videoxpert.htm

Price about 60% of Snazzi, at least here in Europe.